Cadillac CMO Uwe Ellinghaus Wants The Brand To Be Millennials’ First Choice

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By the year 2020, it is expected the millennial generation of buyers will make up the bulk of automotive purchases, inching towards 40-percent of the market.

Cadillac’s entire brand strategy has been to welcome millennials into its court by catering to them now as the market gradually shifts, Cadillac CMO, Uwe Ellinghuas, explained to Fox Business. Events like sponsoring the first ever Men’s Fashion Week, and a neat helicopter stunt, featuring the 2017 Cadillac XT5, are only some of Ellinghaus’ plans.

“We will focus our marketing efforts toward this generation more than any other brand” Ellinghaus said. “This is a huge paradigm shift for all automotive manufacturers, we don’t want to lose the baby boomers, but they will no longer fuel the automotive boom that they fueled for a few decades.”

Contrary to the report, which states Cadillac is not alienating its core customer base, it’s quite the opposite. Campaigns like “Dare Greatly” have not resonated well with baby boomers, who have long been loyal to Cadillac. But, it’s for good reason, the message has young people directly in its sights.

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— Sean Szymkowski

Sean is a lead staff writer for GM Authority. The words above are fueled by passion and large amounts of caffeine. Find him on Instagram: @helloimseann

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10 Comments

Then Ellinghaus better head to the internet Millennial watering holes like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook etc. and listen to hip-hop & RnB to see what our age group talks about when talking luxury. It’s definitely not Men’s Fashion week.

This is a valid pathway to the financial and cultural elite of the generation, such as they are. They are invested in fashion, design, haute cuisine, and the like. It’s not the only pathway, and it will not resonate with 100% of the target audience, but it is a pretty well-aimed image.

You’ll hear a lot of people talk about how “stupid” or “goofy” this is, but they shouldn’t be confusing “bad” with not understanding a message not targeted towards them. By the same token, I truly do not understand how people think a wallowing ride, bench seat, and column shifter will return Cadillac to greatness for the future.

Seems like you just like to hear yourself talk, or in this case hear your keyboard of self-righteousness clack. You’re the first person I’ve ever seen suggest returning Cadillac to glory with a bench seat, a column shifter and fear of God body roll, even if it was suggested ironically.

Lets pretend for a second that that has ever been uttered somewhere, I feel it was sarcasm that shot straight over your head. If anyone has ever said “Cadillac needs to go back to the old days”, they were talking about the character that was Cadillac, each car had its own personality with fantastic design and simple luxury that made up Cadillac and the spirit of that simplicity be returned.

The old saying from Bunkie Knudsen was “You can’t sell a young man an old mans car but you can sell a old man a young mans car”. The fact is that is true and also how you build for the future. You keep that carrot out in front leading.

The Future is never in the past unless you just want to learn from your mistakes.

Cadillac will be lucky if Millennials will even be able to afford luxury cars by then! I don’t see too many of them earning the income! I see their point in trying to appeal to this market but their focus should be more towards currently developing product, and showcasing class-leading technology with exclusive content and styling! I’m sorry, but as a Millennial Cadillac’s current lineup does little to hold my interest! Save for the V-Series cars! Which is why sales are still weak and the Germans continue to dominate the market!!!

Get these elements in place first, then present it to those who can currently afford such vehicles (which are mostly baby boomers), and then let them present it to the Millennials!

Uwe and JdN have done very little to advance sales of new Cadillac’s. The ATS and CTS, while fine cars, continue to struggle as they now have been passed by the XTS in sales volume. Anyone who thinks that was “the plan” all along, is full of it.

The SRX and Escalade have sold regardless of who’s in charge, and the same will be the case for the XT5. The other troubling news is that it appears Cadillac will now look to the Chinese market for future direction, not here. I understand that is the obvious way to go with Buick, but Cadillac should be still be an “American First” brand.